Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 51. Sunrise is 6:27 and sunset is 7:27, for 12 hours, 59 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 65.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1865, at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia fights and loses its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia, during the Appomattox Campaign.
A few quick observations:
Dorothy Day. Whitewater is divided into several factions, a divide that has grown wider over the last twenty years. The best outcome for Whitewater, after the Great Recession especially, would have been for Whitewater to have had a local version of Dorothy Day. That moment never came, and the recession of the Aughts became the lost years of the Teens, the rise of rightwing populism, a pandemic, another recession, and now a return to a populism more virulent than the last.
We are past the point when someone other than Dorothy Day, herself, could bridge the gap between defenders of the constitutional order and authoritarian populists. This political conflict will end only when one side prevails; pretending otherwise is delusional and attempting otherwise is futile. While not every event will be political, there’s no solution apart from the political.
City and Environs. The most obvious political observation one might make in our area is that the City of Whitewater is a center-left community and the nearby towns within the Whitewater Unified School District are on the right. The gap has grown between the city and these towns, and by now I would have thought that every man, woman, child, and household pet understood as much. Still, there’s room for empirical inquiry.
Coalitions. Whitewater has had, this last generation, a type now nearing endangered status: the supposed independent, or even Democrat, who aligns with conservatives (in this town, special interests) on major policies. These remaining few will keep pretending (of course they will) but stark political times make their kabuki evident for what it is. A soft-spoken liberal in a rightwing coalition is rightwing. No one owes anyone else his or her LARPing and cosplay. You are your vote, you are your coalition.
Fallacies and Denials. The people who brought you a politicized Christian theology, pandemic denialism, a recession thereafter, and claims that a violent insurrection was an act of love, now bring you an authoritarianism that offers nativism, book-banning, closet-confining, and a crackpot economics. The mix: fallacies of Tu Quoque (diversionary arguments by claims of hypocrisy), Whataboutism (diversionary arguments by claims of unrelated events), and a closed system of belief (where evidentiary counterexamples are denied or redefined beyond recognition).
The School District. Voters returned both board incumbents to office, and approved a large referendum. There’s probably more than one conservative who’s wondering what happened. I’ll answer only for my own view of the outgoing administration. Of my views of this administration, I have been clear: These Aren’t the MAGA Claims You Were Looking For and “Nice Person, But…”
These posts came in March 2024, when conservatives still held a majority on the board. For months prior, they had the chance to use that majority in the service of open government. They couldn’t muster four votes to rebuke a ridiculous defamation effort against a boardmember and send the current administration on its way. Should have been then.
I don’t think that the city saw the 2025 election this way, but I do: a conservative board didn’t act in 2024 when it should have, and a center-left board didn’t act as it should have in the year since. (No doubt, some rationalized this as a necessary defense against an instability that might have produced reactionary policies.)
The district instead should and can have open government and a community united against reactionary policies. Both, not either.
The district has been these recent years, all around, a dog’s breakfast.
Ramen, Japan, black ramen, broth, dashi, tonkotsu, miso, chashu, instant noodles… mmm, who’s hungry? We love this food, and in this week’s Great Big Story, we explore how ramen became a global phenomenon. From the world’s most remote ramen shop to Toyama’s famous black ramen and the rise of instant noodles. Join us as we dive into the history, flavors, and culture of Japan’s most beloved dish.
Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 50. Sunrise is 6:29 and sunset is 7:26, for 12 hours, 57 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 54.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1938, two days after the Nationalist army occupied the Catalan city of Lleida, dictator Francisco Franco decrees the abolition of the Generalitat (the autonomous government of Catalonia), the self-government granted by the Republic, and the official status of the Catalan language.
Our people have a centuries-long tradition of protest. Today, across this continent, Americans will exercise that right against Trump and Musk. There are both in-person and virtual events to which the American people are cordially invited. (You don’t need to be a Democrat, as I am not. Patriotism is your only necessary credential.) There’s no location for Whitewater, but other nearby by locations await (including Walworth, Janesville, Stoughton, Beloit, and Madison):
Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them. They’re taking everything they can get their hands on, and daring the world to stop them. On Saturday, April 5th, we’re taking to the streets nationwide to fight back with a clear message: Hands off!
A beginning only: every movement and every coalition has a beginning. Start, then keep going.
Tuesday, April 8th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Anora@ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Comedy/Drama/Romance
Rated R (sexual content/nudity/language)
2 hours, 19 minutes (2024)
Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, NY, lives a Cinderella story when she hooks and impulsively marries the Russian son of an oligarch. When the news reaches Moscow, her fairytale begins to unravel, as his parents race to New York City to get the marriage annulled.
Winner of five Oscars including Best Film, Director, Actress and Screenplay.
Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 50. Sunrise is 6:31 and sunset is 7:25, for 12 hours, 54 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 45.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1865, a day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, President Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.
In this last generation, Whitewater, Wisconsin has felt the effects of national calamities: the Great Recession, a pandemic, an insurrection, and now a trade war.
In each case, a small group of local men and women carried on as though local affairs were paramount1; in each case, they did so while conditions in the city grew worse from those national calamities.
Now comes another calamity, and with it a few likelihoods.
Those who supported the authoritarian movement that made a pandemic worse, inspired an insurrection, the return to power of a would-be king, and now a global economic crisis will never admit that they were wrong. Never. They wanted this and they will continue to want this, all of it.
Those who cannot see past Townline Road won’t develop broader horizons. It’s all roads, press releases, and sanewashing with that crew. They’ll keep thinking that if you talk to a hyena in a soft voice that foul creature will give up meat for vegetables. They’d probably keep thinking this even as that carnivore crunched on the nearest human femur2.
There are, however, many more residents in this city, in this state, and this nation who will stand opposed to wholesale ruin.
Of that ruin, there are months and years of damage3 ahead, with this only a portion:
Is “recession” now spelled T-A-R-I-F-F?
Markets were gripped by the recession trade after President Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday threatened a global trade war. Treasury yields, stock futures and the dollar all plunged.
This isn’t mere market hyperbole. Thursday was only the sixth time in history that the S&P 500 had fallen more than 4% while the dollar also fell more than 1%—with investors shocked that the greenback had failed in its usual role as a safe haven.
The carnage in the markets might be just the beginning: If the biggest U.S. tax rise since at least the 1950s causes the economy to shrink, stocks and Treasury yields still have a long way to go down.
As recessions take hold, stocks are hit both by lower earnings and by lower valuations, as spending falls and savers switch to safer assets. Defensive stocks better able to maintain sales—such as sellers of food and other household staples—beat those selling optional purchases such as luxury goods and cars, known as cyclicals.
Thursday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 50. Sunrise is 6:33 and sunset is 7:23, for 12 hours, 51 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 34.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Public Arts Commission meets at 5 PM, and the Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1865, Union forces capture Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy.
In October, writing about the scariest things in Whitewater for the year, this libertarian blogger listed the two worst threats to the city as special interests and nativism. Later, in February, I wrote that there was now only one notable kind of conservative in Whitewater, as only the conservative populists matter politically (‘a conservative might imagine himself as something else (a traditionalist or a deal-maker), and might be something else, but only in his house or in his head’).
There’s always someone who thinks that this predatory movement will see the error of its ways. It won’t, not now, not ever. It may lose its grip on the nation, but it will fall to a majority of others outside that movement to turn it aside.
Those who’ve gone this far, these dead-enders, will never repent of the their conduct, of the damage they’ve caused others.
On the contrary, they’ve never been more assured, more self-justified, than now.
The most conservative justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court — she is — seems upset:
Wednesday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 68. Sunrise is 6:34 and sunset is 7:22, for 12 hours, 48 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 22.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 4:30 PM, the Public Arts Commission at 5 PM, and the Starin Park Water Tower Committee meets at 6 PM.
The Wisconsin event of the moment: Susan Crawford — intelligent, knowledgeable, and of a proper judicial temperament — won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In every way that could possibly matter, she was the better candidate.
Jupiter and the crescent moon start off and end the month together. Find out where to see Mars and Venus as well. The Lyrid Meteor Shower peaks on the night of April 21-22. Amazing globular cluster M3 is also available for skywatchers this month.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 42. Sunrise is 6:36 and sunset is 7:21, for 12 hours, 45 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 14.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
It’s also — to borrow a phrase I’ve heard more than once from people close to the campaign — a “giant political science experiment.”
What happens when you spend far more money than anybody ever has on a judicial election?
What happens when you do it in America’s most competitive state?
What happens when you do it at a moment of extreme political polarization?
What happens when the world’s richest man makes the election his personal project?
What happens when voters are told that an election for Wisconsin Supreme Court is really about Donald Trump (at a time when Trump is gradually becoming more unpopular)?
What happens when all this occurs in the fever pitch of the most turbulent launch of an American presidency in anyone’s memory?
Gilbert’s implication that these questions are meaningful is false, and worse than false, it’s nonsense.
We are well past the point of ordinary political assessments through the concepts of conventional political science (let alone a political consultant’s views, honest to goodness). There are serious men and women who look at these days and see attempts to overturn the constitutional order. America now has a large authoritarian movement, a large authoritarian party, obedient to an authoritarian leader.
Gilbert, like many of yesterday’s men and women, cannot grasp how much the nation has changed. Poor man lost his paradigm and can’t see as much. Less political consulting and more political philosophy might have avoided this myopia. America, Wisconsin, and Whitewater are chock-a-block with people like this1.
Many other men and women, across all America, will make the difference in the years ahead. A few national figures are familiar, but many others will emerge, in places and circumstances yet unknown to us.
______
Especially: Those who seek bipartisanship with jackals, hyenas, and wolves will only find themselves no longer bipedal. Every town has too many versions of Senator Schumer. ↩︎
Monday in Whitewater will see wind gusts and a high of 46. Sunrise is 6:38 and sunset is 7:20, for 12 hours, 42 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 6.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Update No. 2: Turns out Nicholas Jacobs, one of the winners of a million dollars, wasn’t an ordinary attendee but a Wisconsin College Republicans chairman:
Nicholas Jacobs, a student at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, is listed as the chairman of Wisconsin’s College Republicans chapter. He has made his account private on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that Musk owns.
According to his LinkedIn account, Jacobs worked for the campaigns of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and Rep. Derrick Van Orden. In the fall of 2024, he worked as a “ballot chase representative” for Turning Point Action, which began as a youth-focused group active on college campuses but has expanded its voter outreach operations, especially in Wisconsin.
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Elon Musk gave out $1 million checks on Sunday to two Wisconsin voters, declaring them spokespeople for his political group, ahead of a Wisconsin Supreme Court election that the tech billionaire cast as critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda and “the future of civilization.”
Elon Musk presents a check for $1 million dollars to a man during a town hall Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
Elon Musk presents a check for $1 million dollars during a town hall Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
“It’s a super big deal,” he told a roughly 2,000-person crowd in Green Bay on Sunday night, taking the stage in a yellow cheesehead hat. “I’m not phoning it in. I’m here in person.”
….
A unanimous state Supreme Court on Sunday refused to hear a last-minute attempt by the state’s Democratic attorney general to stop Musk from handing over the checks to two voters, a ruling that came just minutes before the planned start of the rally.
Sunday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 64. Sunrise is 6:40 and sunset is 7:19, for 12 hours, 39 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1867, the United States and the Russian Empire agree to the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, about two cents/acre. The parties later ratify the agreement by treaty, and effective transfer occurs in October 1867.
It was improbable that Wisconsin courts would intervene to prevent Elon Musk from conducting a giveaway (of either hundreds of dollars or even millions of dollars) so close to the April 1st election. American courts are not dispositionally situated to address an authoritarian movement, as these movements act quickly, audaciously, and ignore both law and tradition in pursuit of their goals.
A Wisconsin appellate court denied the state Democratic attorney general’s request to stop billionaire Elon Musk from handing over $1 million checks to two voters at a rally planned for Sunday, just two days before a closely contested Supreme Court election.
The denial Saturday by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals is the latest twist in Musk’s deep involvement in the race, which has set a record for spending in a judicial election and has become a litmus test for the opening months of Donald Trump’s presidency. Trump and Musk are backing Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel in the race, while Democrats are behind Dane County Judge Susan Crawford.
Attorney General Josh Kaul filed the lawsuit Friday, arguing that Musk’s offer violates the law. Kaul on Saturday later appealed to the state Court of Appeals, after a county court judge refused earlier in the day to hear the request for an emergency injunction to block the payments.
Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 68. Sunrise is 6:41 and sunset is 7:18, for 12 hours, 36 minutes of daytime. The moon is new with none of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1999, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark (10,006.78) for the first time, during the height of the dot-com bubble.
Each Saint Patrick’s Day weekend, generations of the O’Brien clan gather in the family’s maple grove to tap the sap, cook the syrup and enjoy each other’s company. The family’s creation of combination sap shed and gathering space ensures their family tradition will go on for many generations.
Friday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 76. Sunrise is 6:43 and sunset is 7:16, for 12 hours, 33 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 1.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
In a post on X, the social media platform he owns, Musk wrote late Thursday that he would “give a talk in Wisconsin” on Sunday night. He did not say where.
“Entrance is limited to those who have voted in the Supreme Court election,” he wrote, though he did not specify how that would be verified.
Musk also wrote that he would present two $1 million checks “in appreciation for you taking the time to vote.”
….
In a statement, the spokesman for Schimel’s opponent, liberal Susan Crawford, said Musk was trying to buy off Schimel and labeled his visit a “last-minute desperate distraction.”
“Wisconsinites don’t want a billionaire like Musk telling them who to vote for, and on Tuesday, voters should reject Musk’s lackey Brad Schimel,” spokesman Derrick Honeyman said.
Trump framed the race that will decide the ideological balance of the state Supreme Court in national terms, saying it would have an “outsized impact on the future of the country.”
“I know you feel it’s local, but it’s not. It’s really much more than local,” Trump said in the 10-minute call. “The whole country’s watching.”
After 14 months and 50,000 miles, Bridget McCutchen from Ashland earned the Guinness World Record as the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe by motorcycle. The northern Wisconsin native traversed 45 countries, developing newfound confidence — and inspiring more women to ride — along the way.